Living in A Lie
by Joanther
Summary: Jounouchi always laughs and pretends nothing happens in his life. But when he's having a problem and knows himself can't stand it alone, will he let someone help him?


**Living in A Lie**

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(re-upload)

Write by _Joanther_

Fandom: Yugioh

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh. Those characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi.

Rating: T

Genres: General

Pairing: Kaiba/Jounouchi (established)

Beta Reader: roseofnoonvale

Summary:

_You are always such a liar! You know?_

A/N: I wrote this story based on a doujinshi a friend on FB has sent to me, so it may seems familiar with everybody who have read it before. I love that idea too much and want to share it with you guys. So here it is. It's kinda close to manga than anime because it doesn't have the Dartz's arc, and Kaiba in this fanfic didn't go to America.

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A figure of a blond boy with a blue uniform on stood in front of the large mansion. Hazel eyes watched the gate close in front of him and waited patiently. Suddenly a buzzing sound could be heard and the gate opened. He brushed his blond hair back with one hand before he stepped into the yard. A small dark haired child appeared from the opening door of the mansion and ran toward to him. "Jounouchi! You come!" he shouted happily, but then stopped and gasped. "Your face! What happened?!" He pointed at the large bruise on the taller teen's cheek.

Jounouchi 's face did not change. He looked at the kid and grinned, "It's nothing, Mokuba! I just bumped against a wall when I was half awake. I even saw stars!"

"Really? You can see stars?!" Mokuba's mouth opened wide when he heard that, a worried look appeared on his dark violet eyes. "Does it hurt?! Do you need some cool pads?! I'll get some for you!"

"It's alright! It's not as bad as its look!" Jounouchi laughed and waved his hand. "Is Kaiba home?!"

"He is in his room!" Mokuba smiled when he was reminded of his brother. "I'm not going to bother you two anymore. See you later!" With that he trailed off and disappeared down the endless hallway. Jounouchi sighed once before he headed straight toward the room that he knew was Kaiba's

He knocked on the massive wooden door before he opened it and went in. The first thing he could see in the room was a brunet sitting at his desk. In front of the brunet was a laptop and he seemed to have been working on it for God only knew how many hours. He stopped and looked at the blond, who was smiling shyly and stepped close to him, but he didn't say a word.

"Hey, Kaiba! Hope I didn't bother you!" Jounouchi said slowly. The brunet closed his laptop and waited for the blond to come near him. He reached his hand out and touched the blond's face, where he had the large bruise. "Did your father beat you again?" he spoke for the first time, his voice cold. Blue eyes looked directly into Jounouchi's eyes.

"Heh! I just bumped into something when I was still half sleep," Jounouchi said with a large smile on his face, but before he could say more, the brunet cut him off. "Don't lie to me!" he stated firmly, his blue eyes still glared at the blond who was now trying to look in another direction.

"Your lies are always easy to see through," Kaiba continued when he knew Jounouchi was speechless, then he sighed and pulled the blond onto his lap and embraced him gently. "You still don't accept my help, do you?"

"Help?! What?! I don't need it," Jounouchi laughed and swung his hand, as he tried to break the embrace. "See?! I'm strong. This little thing doesn't bother me!"

The brunet sighed again, and looked solemnly at the blond who was obvious looking at anywhere but his eyes. "Don't worry! I'm unbreakable! There is nothing that will happen." Jounouchi said cheerfully.

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"JOUNOUCHI-KUN! NOOOOO!"

Everybody gasped at the blond who had just fallen on the floor unconscious. The psycho Egyptian sweated; he still could not believe he was almost defeated by the one who was lying there. Wide eyes were glued on the unmoving person as if he would suddenly stand up, as the voices were shouting beside him. An announce "Malik Ishtar is a winner!" brought him to reality, then he started to cough and throw up, while eyes still glared at the blond as the field started moving down. "I thought I was done!" He said in shaking tone.

People started to run to the unmoving blond, shouting and crying. Mokuba's mouth opened but could not say anything. He stood still at his brother's side, who was watching everybody's movements with a motionless face. Blue eyes looked coldly at the blond who was lying on the floor; ignoring the sob voice of the raven haired child. "_Nii-sama_! Jounouchi is..."

_ "See?! I'm strong. This little thing doesn't bother me!"_

_ "Don't worry! I'm unbreakable! There is nothing that will happen."_

'I knew it.'

The brunet stood still, while the others surrounded the blond and obscured the view of him.

'You are always such a liar!'

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Jounouchi sighed as he was sitting on the chair. He hated hospitals. It always had a strange smell that he never got uses to. Just when he started to feel bored from the long waiting time, he heard a familiar sound called his name. "Jounouchi!"

He turned around to see the raven haired child running toward him. "Have you done all the checkup tests?"

"It's almost done!" The blond brushed his hair. "I'm tired! Why does it take so much time? I'm sleepy already."

"You need to be patient. They have to check up everything to make sure there is nothing wrong," Mokuba said seriously, using the mature tone that did not fit his age.

"I'm alright! I know myself the best!" Jounouchi grinned and patted the younger child's hair. "You don't need to do all of this for me, you know."

"I have to!" Mokuba argued. "While you were in a coma, the doctor couldn't find any problem in your body, and you were almost dead. When Honda's grabbed you the first time, he said your pulse didn't run."

Jounouchi stared at the small child, who was continuing to talk, "Beside, I'm the one who is responsible for Battle City's tournament. If you had something happen, it'll become trouble for me." He said this solemnly, then stopped and looked at the floor, "I'm a little bit worry about you too."

Jounouchi's eyes widened at the child who was tapping his fingers on the chair. His raven haired was too wide and covered nearly half of his face, but the older teen still could see a little pink on his cheek. He then smiles and patted the child's hair again, "Thanks."

"It's just a little bit! A little bit! You know!" The child looked up and said it in embarrassment, his face now all red. Jounouchi chuckled, felt how cute the younger Kaiba could be. He wondered if the older Kaiba would ever be this cute. Even since they started their relationship, there was nothing difference between Jounouchi and Kaiba from before. They still called each other by their last name, still bickered about everything, and usually still called each other names. Kaiba never showed his actions in public; Jounouchi didn't care about it either. It made he sometimes forgot that they were together. Even his friends wondered if they were really a couple or not.

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Jounouchi took off his pajama and changed into his blue uniform. He did it as quietly as he could, because he didn't want the brunet who was sleeping on the bed not far away to wake up. But as he soon as he finished dressing, a cold voice spoke up. "You're leaving?"

"I'm sorry!" He looked back at the blue eyes. "Did I wake you?"

"I heard you had a checkup yesterday. How was it?" The brunet asked and sat up, ignoring the question from the blond.

"I don't know. Mokuba said it'll take two or three days to have the result. I think it's all fine."

Kaiba said nothing; he only placed a hand on his forehead, and his blue eyes were only half opened. He was definite not a morning person type. "You should sleep more. Yesterday you came back too late from work. If I knew you did not come back until midnight, I wouldn't have come here." Jounouchi said and looked at the tired brunet, who was smiling now. "You're really strong, Jounouchi. Like a mutt!"

"Dammit! I tell you to sleep and you insult me?! What's the matter?!" Jounouchi frowned and shouted, but received no reaction from the brunet, who was still putting his hand on his own forehead. Then he smiled and walked close to his lover on the bed. He placed one arm on his shoulder. "You're right! I'm strong! There is nothing that can break me! I survived danger many times, didn't I?"

Kaiba looked straight into the hazel eyes. The half-awake man now seemed too solemn before he sighed, "You always tell me you're strong. Do you always tell yourself those words too?"

Jounouchi blinked, but before he could say anything, he was pressed closer to the brunet. Kaiba's lip met his gently and licked it a little bit long before he stopped. "I'll come home early today. You can come after you have done your work too," he mumbled and caressed Jounouchi's face with his fingers. Hazel eyes stared at him uncertainly. "But... I think I'll be working late today. I don't know if I can come..."

"Come!" was the only one firmly word from the brunet.

"Oh... Okay!" Jounouchi frowned and pulled his arm off Kaiba's shoulder, then turned away, "See you later." With that he left Kaiba's bedroom and closed the door. Suddenly as he walked out into the hallway, everything around him started to spin.

"What the hell...?" he gasped and stopped. Everything then went back to normal. He blinked once and continued to move, but didn't get what just happened.

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"You're tough, Jounouchi," Anzu commented. "After Battle City you went to work and never took a day off. How can you do that? Kaiba didn't stop you?"

"What?! Of course not. It's my life. He can't stop me, you know." He grinned at the brunet, "I find no reason to stop working."

"I thought Mokuba had to have a checkup done on you after what happened at Battle City. Are you alright?!" Yugi smiled at him. "You shouldn't work too much. We don't know whether your body is unharmed or not."

"I know myself the best," Jounouchi patted his best friend's hair. "Everything's alright! I feel like nothing's wrong in my body." But then he stopped. Wait, was it this morning that he had felt dizzy? But it only happened once, maybe no need to worry much. "I'm strong, am I not?"

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"Jounouchi! The checkup had a result," Jounouchi arrived at Kaiba's mansion that night and was welcomed by the raven haired child. The blond blinked in surprise before he sat down on the couch next to Mokuba. "Really? Isn't it fast? Didn't you say it would take days to have the result?"

"It's because the hospital was from Kaiba Corp, and nii-sama demanded them to focus on your tests," Mokuba said and waved the folder in front of Jounouchi, then he started to open it. "There is nothing wrong with your body, but you have anemia. They also have medicine for you."

"Medicine?!" The blond frowned at the pills in Mokuba's hand, "I'm fine. I don't think I need it."

"Oh, take it, please!" The child whined. "You have to take one in the morning and one in the evening. It's good for your body."

Jounouchi took the pills Mokuba gave him, before heard the child said more, "Not only me, but nii-sama was worrying about you too since you was in a coma. You can't just ignore it."

He absently smiled when Mokuba brought his brother in and nodded. Then he heard the child grinned, "But it surprised me! You seem to have more of blood than anything, and you have anemia!"

"Shut up!" he said in embarrassment.

'Anemia? So it was the cause of my dizziness earlier?' he thought and looked at the pills thoughtfully.

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He closed the door of his own apartment. Since his father stopped drinking and moved out to work at Okinawa, he lived alone and had to work many jobs to keep the rent house and school fees, it didn't count the amount of money to buy food and stuffs. He was exhausted from lack of sleep and he had worked too much yesterday, but he still had to go to school. With a yawn he started to walk down the stairs, but then his body suddenly lost all strength and his head was spinning again. Before Jounouchi could react, he felt himself fall down the stairs.

"Ouch!" He tried to stand up after the fall, but it was not an easy fall. His face slammed against the wall and this time really left a large bruise on his cheek, not just an excuse for Mokuba several months ago. He thought about what just happened and swore slightly inside his head. What was that? Was this caused by the anemia too?

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"What happened?" Yugi and Honda caught him in class, while he tried to bandage his injuries. He smiled at them hurtfully because the bruise was right on his left cheek. "Oh hey, Yugi, Honda!" he greeted.

"Your face is injured," Yugi said with worry showing in his big purple eyes. Jounouchi waved his hand, but did not try to smile anymore because it hurt too much. "Nothing's really big. I just wasn't careful and fell from the stair."

"You should watch out!" the small teen frowned and tried to say more, but then a girl called him, maybe to ask about the homework. Immediately Honda got closer to Jounouchi and whispered so only Jounouchi could hear, "Is this from your dad again?"

"My dad is in Okinawa, and he has no superpowers," Jounouchi joked, and Honda nodded in realization. "I just got my test results yesterday, and it says I have anemia. Maybe it caused my head spin. I had some headaches lately, and then I bumped against something."

"It sounds terrible," the cone head brunet rolled his eyes. "You will bump into something worse if it keeps happening. Have they given you something?"

"Mokuba gave me medicine and I took it as he said, so don't worry. I'll back to my normal self in no time," Jounouchi laughed. "In the end, I'm strong, am I not?"

Well, yes... But..." Honda looked at Jounouchi amusedly. "... A hot-blooded person like you having an anemia, it's kinda hard to believe."

"Are you trying to pick a fight?"

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Jounouchi opened the door that went through to the school's roof. No one was here. As he was thinking he stepped to the middle of the floor and looked around. The cool wind made him smile. After all, he wanted to go here to clear his head. For some reasons today was the tenth day after Mokuba had given him the pills, and he had taken them all without forgetting a single tablet, and he followed the directions Mokuba gave him, but his head was still spinning and it was happening more often. He started to doubt that his problem was due to the anemia but couldn't explain it. Maybe he had worked too much and was just lacking rest? If it was so, he thought he might need to take some work days off. He hoped it would be okay.

He closed his eyes and then opened them slowly. He looked at the empty roof one more time. The sky before his eyes was blue, with warming sunlight wrapped in the air. The cool transparent winds ran randomly everywhere, and made his blond hair float along with every breeze. A beautiful day. He smiled again, wondered how long it's been since cared about the weather or things this simple. He had focused on his friends, the mystery magic things, and then his work lately, and that made him forget about the natural beauties. It was like he really should take some days off from his works.

Suddenly the view before him started spinning again; everything in his eyes became blurry and twisted. He felt his feet shaking and was about to fall but around him there was nothing to lean on. The visual in front of his eyes then changed to colorless while still spinning, then everything went black.

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"Jounouchi! Hey! Jounouchi!" he heard a voice screaming his name from somewhere, but he could not reply back. Then the feeling suddenly came back to him as he felt someone shaking his shoulder. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw that his familiar cone brunet friend was kneeling in front him.

"Honda?! What the..." He sat up automatically, and noticed that he was still on the school roof. His friend gave him a strange look. "What were you doing? Sleeping like a dead man. Do you know how many times I have called you?"

Jounouchi didn't respond, but still looked around. The sky was still blue. The sun was still on the highest point of the sky, and winds were still everywhere. "What time is it?"

"The lunch break is over. We noticed you didn't show up at the cafeteria like normal, so we thought you had some business with Kaiba. But he showed up in cafeteria later and didn't have you with him. If you want to sleep you should tell us, you know. You made us worry!" Honda said. "Even so, your pose when you sleep is weird. If I didn't know better, I would think you had collapsed."

He blinked. He really had collapsed.

"I'm sorry! Didn't mean for it to happen," he grinned at his friend. "I just wanted to clear my head a little bit then the weather is too good to sleep, so I thought I take a nap." He stood up and followed Honda, wondering what happened with him.

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"Your face looks pale. Is everything alright?!" Jounouchi jolted at the voice that suddenly cut off his thought. He looked up at the brunet who was sitting on the table with the laptop hiding half of his face. Jounouchi was at Kaiba's house to sleep over again and was in his bedroom. The young CEO worked at his desk while Jounouchi was just sitting there on the bed and thinking. He noticed when the brunet spoke up that it was nearly ten in the evening.

"Maybe it's because of the light. There is nothing to worry about," he smiled at Kaiba who seemed to turn all the attention on him. Blue eyes were glued on Jounouchi without blinking, but they were emotionless. Somehow Jounouchi wondered what he was thinking. Even after the long time they had been together, he still was not sure that he could understand Kaiba. Then a flash of the 'black out event' that morning came to his thought. Could it count as a problem? Nah, it was just because he worked too much. Jounouchi was sure that if he took some days off and rested everything would be okay.

A warm hand gently touched his face. Jounouchi blinked, he didn't notice Kaiba had come close to him. Still the blue eyes looked directly at his eyes, but he thought he could see some concern in them. Without any word, the brunet's lips leaned down to his lips kissing him slowly. Jounouchi took the hint and opened his mouth; he let the warm tongue thrust in and played with the inside of his mouth. The large arms wrapped around his waist, pulled him into the other's lap. Jounouchi closed his eyes, and placed one hand on Kaiba's shoulder, the other hand wrapped Kaiba's waist as well. He could feel Kaiba's arms tightening on his back. A warm feeling from his lover made him feel safe and secure. Jounouchi smiled slightly when Kaiba stopped kissing him to let the two breathed, wondered how long it had been since the last time Kaiba and he had this sweet a moment. Kaiba was still hugging him tightly and stayed like that for a while without talking, the blue eyes never left him.

"You will tell me if you have a problem, won't you?" Kaiba said quietly, which surprised Jounouchi. He then nodded, and laid his head on Kaiba's shoulder. "It's really nothing. You don't have to worry," he smiled.

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"Jounouchi! Hey! Jounouchi!"

Jounouchi jolted and opened his eyes; he saw that his boss was standing in front of him with a pissed look on his face. "Eh?!"

"What is your problem? Sleeping during work? Were the break days not enough to you?" His boss asked in annoyance. Just then Jounouchi noticed he was sitting on the floor of his work's place. But the thing was he did not sleep. He had blacked out. Again.

"Sorry! I'll get back to work right away," he stood up, feeling a little bit dizzy but did not let it bother him. He had taken a week off from his job and now was back, but strangely he still felt dizzy, usually involving the spinning and some black outs during the week before. He did not feel tired, and the blackouts were so fast that sometimes he did not know he would black out. Luckily, from the first time Honda had caught him, he did not faint in front of his friends or Kaiba. They would worry themselves sick.

_ "You will tell me if you have a problem, won't you?"_ The words of Kaiba ran into his mind, but he shook it away. It was nothing. Everything was nothing. His body would be fine in the few next days, so he did not have to be scared from it. If he told his friends they would be worried about him, but he felt everything was normal, so he didn't want to alarm them. That would be too ridiculous.

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"The after-effect of the Shadow Game?" the _other_ Yugi gave Jounouchi a strange look. "I don't think so. But why do you ask me?"

"It's nothing! I'm just curious," Jounouchi waved his hands and laugh nervously, when the _other_ Yugi shot him a sharp glare. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"Nah! I feel fine," he said quickly. It had been a month since he took Mokuba's pills and also cut some of his jobs, but Jounouchi still felt as if his body was NOT fine. He tried to rest to keep it down, but there was something that made it strange. He had not felt dizzy or a spinning sensation in the last week, but instead had fainted right away before knowing it. He could faint anywhere without warning: in his own house, his work's place, on the street... Hell, he even almost had a car crash when he fainted. The luckiest thing was he never fainted in front of his friends and Kaiba. But he has barely seen Kaiba lately because the brunet was busy from the work in his own company. Jounouchi knew he could not avoid it anymore, so he decided to call the _other_ Yugi to the school roof and asked him, wanted to know if he knew one or two things about this.

"You don't look fine, Jounouchi-kun," the _other_ Yugi's crimson eyes glanced at him. "You seem paler than before and I noticed you usually space out when you are with us. What's wrong?"

It seemed like he couldn't hide stuff from the _other_ Yugi. Jounouchi brushed his hair back, and said timidly, "Well... Honestly, since after the Battle City my head has been spinning until now. At first I thought it was because of my anemia, but after I took the pills, it's still happening. And..." He stopped, because he did not know if he should tell him about the fainting spells. "I usually blackout too. It started to happen more suddenly than before."

"Oh. Did you get a checkup?" the _other_ Yugi frowned, and walked closer to Jounouchi. The blond just hoped that his real Yugi friend wasn't here to hear. The younger duelist would worry himself sick.

"I haven't checked up again after the one Mokuba did for me. But that time everything was okay," Jounouchi said thoughtfully. The _other_ Yugi seemed to thinking a little bit about this, and then said slowly, "I was wondering if it was because you were against Ra or not, but it's not really possible. There must be another reason."

"Oh..." Jounouchi then kept silent; he did not know what to say. But before he could start to think, a cold voice caught his attention.

"Then it'll better if you go get another checkup, Jounouchi."

Jounouchi and the _other_ Yugi immediately turned toward the intruder, who was no other than Kaiba. He was walking slowly toward the two. His face kept an unreadable emotion but Jounouchi suddenly felt frozen when he looked at the young CEO's cerulean eyes. The brunet was crossing his arms as he spoke again, face turned to the _other _Yugi. "Do you have any idea what's happening to him, Yugi?"

"Right now I have no idea. I don't know if it's because of magic or his physical health," the King of Game answered, sighing slightly.

"Then I don't want to waste any more time," Kaiba said as he turned to Jounouchi. One hand grabbed Jounouchi's arm and pulled the blond close to him. Jounouchi tried to protest but stopped right away when he looked at the blue eyes. "You come with me to the hospital," Kaiba demanded icily.

"I hope you will find something," the _other_ Yugi shouted when Kaiba lead Jounouchi walking off of the roof. None of them turned back to say goodbye to him, leaving the tri-color haired boy to stand there in silence.

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"What did you do to _nii-sama_?!" Jounouchi looked at Mokuba in confusion. The kid was standing at the side of the bed which Jounouchi was lying on, looking at him with firm, dark violet eyes. "He has looked angry since he came home earlier, and he was with you. What's wrong?"

Jounouchi sighed. "I don't know what's wrong," he said honestly. "We went to the hospital after he caught me talking with the _other_ Yugi. He seemed angry but I'm not sure I know why."

"Did you do anything with Yugi?" Mokuba frowned, knowing that wasn't possible.

"I just asked him some questions..." He then remained silent, thinking. "But was Kaiba angry with me? I don't know what to do... Where is he?"

"I saw him talking on the phone in the living room before I came here," the raven-haired kid said. "He demanded that something be done as fast as possible. Do you have any idea?"

"About the call? I think I know..." Before Jounouchi could finish his sentence, an icy voice cut him. "Shouldn't you be in your bedroom now, Mokuba?"

The two in the room jolted at the sudden appearance of the brunet. Mokuba sweated as he looked at his brother guiltily, then he turned back to Jounouchi and whisper quickly, "Apologize to him, for whatever you did. Please! He never used that tone to talk to me before." And with that, he trailed off and passed his brother, said goodbye to the couple before disappearing out the door.

Then only Kaiba and Jounouchi were in the room. The blond lying on the bed looked nervously at the brunet, who was standing in the spot where Mokuba was early. On the young CEO's hand was a folder with a red cross and KC's signature on it. Jounouchi had a very good idea about what it was.

"This is the result of your check-up today," Kaiba said, confirming Jounouchi's thought. His hand started to unfold the folder, "There is nothing wrong with your body. Even the anemia is not the big thing to worry about after you took those pills from Mokuba."

"Nothing's wrong?" Jounouchi asked in surprise. He had expected that he had been lacking in some kind of vitamins or nutritive. That was what he believed had caused the mysterious faints, especially since the other Yugi said it had nothing to do with the Shadow Game or Ra's power.

"I must correct, 'the doctors found nothing's wrong with your body, doesn't mean there is nothing's wrong with your body'," Kaiba spoke with a cold scary tone that made Jounouchi shiver slightly. He had seen the brunet made others freak out before, but never thought he himself would experience that. "You had collapsed during the check-up. Do you know that?"

Jounouchi nodded, but he didn't dare look at Kaiba. That thing was unexpected. He did not know he had fainted until he woke up with Kaiba sitting next to him; it seemed like he had called him several times. "It's not your first time, right? I heard you talk with Yugi about it too," Kaiba continued, his voice still in a dangerous tone.

"Um..." Jounouchi made a sound, but said nothing and looked down to the blanket that was wrapping around his body. A paper suddenly dropped into his sight.

"What's this?" He asked curiously, but took it and started to read. "The doctors did some tests when you passed out. There are the results," Kaiba mumbled as Jounouchi continued reading it. A light pain shot through his body as he finished it. He knew nothing about the medical, but the paper had too much detail for him to know about his state. As he was still staring blankly at it, Kaiba's voice was on again. "Your heart speeds, your pulses, your blood running, your brain... It's too much slower than normal people when you fainted."

Jounouchi's mouth open, but still no words came out.

"It looks like you were more comatose than fainting. I have tried to wake you up but you didn't hear me. You lied there, like you were dead."

Jounouchi's body started to tremble.

"There is nothing wrong with your body, so I assume it was because of the occult power, even Yugi said he had no idea about this," Kaiba said, using his colder than ice voice. Every word of his made Jounouchi tremble more than before. He gave the brunet a small gaze, and saw he was standing there with his arms crossing.

"Because there is nothing wrong with your body, we can't do anything except watch you." He could feel the blue eyes on his as his cold voice continued, "You will move here and sleep with me, permanently. And, you won't go to work anymore. It would be dangerous if you pass out on the street or somewhere unsafe."

"What?! But..." Jounouchi automatically looked up when he heard those words. "Isn't that going too far? I shouldn't depend all on you like that!"

"What's your point?! Do you think you can force yourself on with your body like that?" Kaiba snapped back.

"It's nothing serious! They found nothing wrong with me, so I'll be fine right away. You don't have to do all of this for me!" Jounouchi protested back but weaker this time. Kaiba raised his eyebrows. "You don't know what will happen if you still force yourself like that. I said it and I meant it. Got that?!"

"No! Wait! It's not a big deal! I can handle myself! Don't worry! There is no prob..." a slap cut Jounouchi's words as he still did not finish his sentence and never would be able to. Jounouchi froze in shock; he never expected he would be slapped by Kaiba. His mind blanked, it couldn't thinking of anything more, until a voice spoke up, slowly but scarier than anything he had ever heard.

"It's enough," he stared up at the brunet. Kaiba was having the most murderous look in his eyes as he looked back at him. "I'm tired of it. Your silly lies..." He then grabbed one of Jounouchi's arms, pulled he close to him. "As I said before, your lies are always easy to see through." He nearly shouted. "I'll tell you why. It's because of the way you laugh."

Jounouchi stared blankly at the brunet, but he did not know what to say.

"It doesn't matter what you went through, you always smile, laugh. You try to pretend it is no big deal. You laugh when you feel sorrow, lost or suffer. You laugh to hide it from everybody, even yourself. You force yourself to go on as if everything is normal. Why?!"

Jounouchi lost himself in Kaiba's wrath. Never in his life had he seen Kaiba this angry. All he could do was stare at the brunet, and listen to him continued to scream.

"Do you know how I felt every time you were laughing? You never opened yourself to me. Don't you believe me?"

"No! It's not..." Jounouchi finally found his words, but was cut by Kaiba. "You always threw yourself at other's problem, but didn't care about yourself. I always tried to help you but you denied it all. No matter how much you make everybody believe you are strong. But the truth is you are not. And now don't say you can do everything by yourself to me. I will end it. I will end your stupid thoughts."

Jounouchi nodded silently, his head placed on the brunet's shoulder. The taller teen loosened his hand, and his arms wrapped around Jounouchi. After a short silent, he whispered to the blond's ear, "Why have you never told me when you were scared? Don't you trust me?"

"No!" Jounouchi shook his head violently on Kaiba's shoulder, then stopped and buried it into the brunet's neck. "I wanted to tell you, but... You were busy. I saw you never rested from your work, so I didn't want to make you worry more about me. After all, I feel like I'm a burden to you," he mumbled, feeling the arms around his back tighten. His body trembled slightly, but he didn't realize it. "So that's why, I told myself everything would be alright. I told myself that I would recovery and wouldn't make you notice how I was."

He then stopped as he pushed himself away from Kaiba's body; his eyes looked down at the blanket. "Even so, I don't know what I should do..."

"Jounouchi," Kaiba said, his voice didn't have anger in it anymore but was in a lower tone. "Look at me, Jounouchi."

Jounouchi did at he was told, suddenly saw in front of him blurry.

"Eh?! What... what's wrong with me?!" he panicked when he noticed he was crying. Why did he cry? Why?

"Jounouchi! Calm down!" Kaiba demanded gently, arms wrapped Jounouchi's back and pressed him into his lap. Jounouchi felt calm when he smelled the familiar cinnamon and the warm of his lover. "It's okay to cry. After all you don't know what's happening to you, so you don't have to act strong. You have me with you. To me you are more important than anything I can think about right now. Don't think of yourself as a burden. We will think through this together. We will solve it together. Understand?!"

Tears rolled down his face but Jounouchi didn't care anymore. He nodded as his arms wrapped around Kaiba's back, and he buried his head in Kaiba's chest and continued to cry. Never in his life could he feel this safe and peaceful, especially in his current state. But he strongly believed that everything would be alright, when the one he loved was with him.

"Everything will be alright! I promise! I'm with you," were the final words Jounouchi heard before he fell asleep. Kaiba kept him in his arms a while, and then placed him back onto the bed, caressed gently at the red cheek he had slapped early. He sat there and watched the sleeping form of his lover for a very long time, not noticing that a small smile was appearing on his own lip.

'I don't know what's happening with you, but don't worry.' He gave the loving blond a small kiss on his cheek, while his hand brushed Jounouchi's hair. 'I'm always with you.' With that he climbed on the bed and buried himself into the blanket next to his lover, arms wrapped around the sleeping blond. With one last look at the peaceful face, he closed his eyes.

'Right, Jounouchi?'

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**-End-**


End file.
